topic Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem in PCs & Accessories

Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:03:48 GMT

If I unplug the power cord and run on battery, when I reconnect to the mains later, the screen instantly darkens to a lower setting. This is a setting lower than the setting I have set up in Vaio power management for running on either battery or mains - I think it resets to the default lowest setting.

If I adjust it with function+f4 to brighter, then it resets darker after a few minutes. When I press function+f4 the bars can't be advanced to brighter with repeated presses of f4 - it goes to the highest brightness, though I can reduce it back down.

The only way to make sure the power setting for mains are restored and stays restored for more than a few minutes is to re-boot.

Can this be right? No changes I make in the power management utility seem to fix this - and yes, I've read the manual.

Should I delete the Vaio power management utility and use the windows default? Is there an update on this? Can I reload the Vaio power management utility again?

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

rich912 — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:35:29 GMT

Hi marzipan99 and welcome to Club Vaio.

I have not come across this particular problem before, but if you were to state your Vaio model number then possibly someone may be able to help.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:19:57 GMT

Sorry, silly of me.

SZ2 XP

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

JOMABOL — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:11:25 GMT

Hi,

I have the same problem with VGN-FS315Z.

I have update the Bios, but the problem continue...

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

jacko88 — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 09:51:25 GMT

I have a similar problem: after setting the brightness, my vgn-fe11h laptop resets to minimum screen brightness when running on batteries - but there's no rule: sometimes it does it, othertimes not. I've turned off any VAIO power management settings; I can't find any possible solutions on the vaio-link database. Any ideas, anyone?

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

bop319 — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 10:26:41 GMT

I've run into the same problem with my SZ2XP, but unfortunately no solution (yet).

Ciao!

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 22:26:01 GMT

Right - so it looks as if we all have a genuine problem.

I'm a newbie - how do we report this to Sony to get a fix?

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

mmackh — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:09:56 GMT

i had the same problem with my vaio...
there is only one conclusion:
if you turn off your computer with hibernate it happens to be a
problem with the screen brightness.
i think if you want to go round this problem just turn of your vaio
normally

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 08:46:06 GMT

Not good enough. I didn't pay money for a laptop not to work as advertised and stated in the manual.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

Jonmorse — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:48:11 GMT

I found the same problem with my sz2-xp. On talking to Vaio-link they pointed me to the display settings (which were set to the same) then asked me to disconnect the power and then reconnect it. Which stopped it working that time though I have seen it a few times since.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

Jonmorse — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:24:58 GMT

just a question on my sz2-xp it's function+F6 to make the screen brighter. is it different on yours?

If I adjust it with function+f4 to brighter, then it resets darker after a few minutes.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 18:12:51 GMT

Sorry, yes f6

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 18:18:04 GMT

I found the same problem with my sz2-xp. On talking to Vaio-link they pointed me to the display settings (which were set to the same) then asked me to disconnect the power and then reconnect it. Which stopped it working that time though I have seen it a few times since.

Can you talk me through that ? Display settings as in "display" option via the control panel? If so, what then - advanced? troubleshoot? Or other display menu

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

@6253377301000802 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:59:57 GMT

I already replied in the other post about this but as I said there, this is a known driver bug - use the vaio update centre!

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:44:51 GMT

What other post? What update?

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:53:05 GMT

OK, I go to support - Downloads and Upgrade

As ever, I enter the serial number,,,

Do I then see anything saying Driver Update for SZ2XP?

Do I bollocks.

Where is this update? What is it called? Do you mean update the bios? I hope not...

Please. Pretty Please.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

marzipan99 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:56:05 GMT

Found the damn thing under video

Sony don't make it easy

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

Masked — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 11:54:51 GMT

I had the same problem, found out that it was a program smartdimmer in nvidia control panel. It's only accessible when running on battery though. I disabled all options (don't forget 2d tab) and never had problems since!

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

@6253377301000802 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:14:27 GMT

There should be an icon down on the system tray in Windows if you didn't remove it already. VAIO Update Centre is the name of the "util". When you click it Internet Explorer will open and you'll be directed onto a VAIO site for updates.

After accepting the user agreement you'll see a page with two types of upgrades;

1. Auto updates
2. Manual updates

I can see some of you are mentioning the BIOS. This is not a BIOS issue. It is a bug in the spesiffic GForce driver.

Under manual updates you will find a driver update for the GeForce video adapter.

Follow the steps and remember you must run the Speed Mode to update the driver.

I had the same issue with my SZ2VP and I reckon all users with the old driver and GeForce 7400 will have this issue.

Re: Screen brightness after running on battery problem

Jonmorse — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:07:20 GMT

Hi,

I have done all of the updates and keep my machines very up to date. The problem is still on going and causes some amusement to those I work with (I'm not someone who is good at hiding when things annoy).

Jon